A lesson in reforms: Farmers set to teach farmers in Punjab

The project will also see the opening of Farm Field Schools (FFS) in farmhouses, for which Rs 50,000 per school has already been released by the central Government. The farmers have now been identified and the schools are likely to be set up by March this year. While the farmers will be trained at these schools, they will also have 2.5-acre demonstration farms, where they will grow the crops using the imparted techniques for other farmers’ benefit.

“When a farmer displays his achievements before the farmers who have not obtained desirable results on their lands, they will certainly try to follow him,” says Upkar Singh, a progressive farmer who has been selected as a teacher from Phillaur block, and has been growing mushrooms organically. “After all, a farmer is more liable to trust another farmer,” he adds.

Nirnkar Singh, Joint Director, Agriculture, and Nodal Officer, ATMA, agrees. The scheme focuses on teaching farmers through farmers, he says, while the department provides technical assistance and training to the farmer teacher.

At the farm school, the teacher will take his farmer students to the field where he has grown crops like maize, wheat, turmeric, soyabean, vegetables, bio-diesel plants and medicinal plants. “At a later stage, we will provide Internet facilities to the farmers at the block level and they can use it for searching markets for their produce,” added Singh.

The scheme gains currency considering the Agriculture Department’s failure in getting the farmers—who have continued to grow wheat and paddy using traditional methods for decades—to adopt new techniques and technology.

Now, however, the change is beginning to show. Sangita Deol, who has been selected as a teacher at Dhanal in Jalandhar district, has been involved in bee-keeping, mushroom farming and vermiculture. According to her, farmers not only from her village but also the neighbouring villages have been visiting her demonstration plot and many have started bee-keeping and vermiculture. The farmers can visit such schools at any time.

Brigadier K. S.Dhillon, who has been selected as a farmer teacher from Bhogpur block, also in Jalandhar, has been growing the bio-diesel jatropha, turmeric and other traditional crops, and will teach the farmers about the same. “It’s a good effort on the part of the Government,” he says, “and the farmers will be inspired to go for organic farming and new crops which have a great potential in the state.”

Jalandhar district has 10 blocks where such schools and teachers have been selected by ATMA.

However, the scheme has its roots in Gurdaspur, where ATMA tied up with Jagtar Singh, a progressive farmer who has been running such a school for several years now. He has been engaged in organic farming and has grown wheat, garlic, onion, litchi, peas, mango, mushroom, among others. He has also set up a vermi- compost plant at his farmhouse and has trained thousands of farmers till date.

Jagtar Singh had opened his FFS at Sauli Bhauli village of Gurdaspur and ATMA selected him in 2003 on an experiment basis. It was after the success of this school in compelling other farmers to learn new techniques that the agency decided to take it up at the state level.

“I had taken training from Jagtar Singh about a decade ago after visitng his farm and started farming along the same lines. Today, I am doing very well having learnt much about the latetst technologies and farming methods,”says Nirmal Singh of Sauli Bhauli.

If all goes well, thousands of farmers in the state’s eight districts will soon have a similar story to recount.